A Manhattan judge has refused to halt a new city rule that will require ride-hail apps to pay their drivers a minimum wage starting Friday.

“If they were to get the temporary restraining order they were requesting the drivers would not be protected at all,” Manhattan Supreme Court Justice Andrea Masley said.

Instead Masley told apps Juno and Lyft to put the additional pay in an escrow account until a legal challenge is resolved.

The two ride-share companies sued to block the pay hike early Wednesday morning claiming it would be too expensive and give market leader Uber a larger advantage.

“The cost of compliance with this rule will be in the range of approximately $2.5 million per week. Those are severe economic harms that would not be recoverable,” said Sara L. Shudofsky, attorney for Lyft.

The Taxi and Limousine Commission voted in December to create an hourly minimum wage of $17.27 for all ride-share-app drivers in the city.

“This is an 11th-hour attempt to challenge this rule,” said TLC lawyer Pamela Koplik.

“The city here and the drivers are being sandbagged by this challenge. This is corporate profits at the expense of a livable wage for the drivers that’s what’s at issue here,” she said.